Xun Wind Essence

Meditating through the night!

Jiang Ming opened his eyes from meditation with a dark expression. He had been startled awake by the system notification.

"Congratulations, Host, for killing half of your benefactor, Landlord Zhang. You have received a random reward: ten thousand taels of gold, automatically deposited into the Host's Sea of Bitterness. Please check and confirm."

He had merely killed a great villain among mortals. Did it really need to specifically mention "half a benefactor"? He had only stayed there for one night, gotten some clothes and wine, plus a little silver, and it had to be like this...

Fine!

Jiang Ming felt that some gold was still a decent reward.

His Life-Bound Sword circled the ten thousand taels of gold once. The ten thousand taels immediately became one thousand, while the excess gold was reduced to powder after the Life-Bound Sword devoured its metal essence.

As Jiang Ming gently exhaled, the impurities in his Sea of Bitterness were expelled through his breathing technique.

For his Life-Bound Sword to grow, it needed to devour all kinds of Five Elements essences, as well as certain other essences.

It was much like how those Rogue Cultivators could extract Refined Gold from iron ore and refine it into armor and magical artifacts.

As for Landlord Zhang's death, Jiang Ming admitted that he had done it. The poor souls buried in that man's back garden had not even gone cold yet. He considered it ridding the people of a scourge.

His path of cultivation had only just begun. He could not slack off. He bore a blood feud and had to wipe out that flock of Lightning Birds to avenge Smoke Glow Fairy and Lingzhi.

And that Three Yin Cold Lotus had to be harvested as well. It was Lingzhi's final wish.

Besides, the Shrouding the Heavens world was dangerous. If he failed to grow strong in the future, he might as well kill himself and see if he could transmigrate again.

Jiang Ming skillfully transformed into a pangolin. Yellowish light enveloped his body as he used its innate Earth Escape to leave the stone chamber a thousand meters underground and return to the surface.

Outside lay the naturally gloomy and freezing Fallen Phoenix Ridge. Who would have thought that this was a world beneath a ten-thousand-meter abyss, occupied by countless centipedes?

Unfortunately, after yesterday's battle, all the top centipedes had died.

Jiang Ming had no clothes to wear, so he transformed into the Six-Eared Macaque and leaped swiftly between cliffs and crags, climbing out of Fallen Phoenix Ridge.

After Jiang Ming left that region and looked back at the land, he felt that the abyss had originally been carved out by a single freezing attack.

A ravine stretching thousands of miles beyond the eye's reach had actually come to be this way.

His next tasks were clear: fill his stomach and catch a demonic beast to refine into clothing.

Using the Six-Eared Macaque's innate talent, Jiang Ming quickly locked onto the loudest creature. It was an oversized saber-toothed azure tiger with a pair of wings, ferocious beyond measure. Early in the morning, its roar was by far the most obnoxious.

This was a fierce tiger comparable to a Life Spring cultivator. Ordinary Life Spring cultivators would not even dare provoke it. It was a tyrant-class savage beast of this region.

When Jiang Ming arrived, the saber-toothed azure tiger had just finished hunting. Beneath its claws, a red-feathered crane lay in a pool of blood.

This saber-toothed azure tiger had quite picky tastes. Ground beasts no longer satisfied it, so it had set its sights on the nearby red-feathered crane clan. This was even a red-feathered crane comparable to a Life Spring cultivator. It was truly unlucky.

Ordinarily, demonic beasts of the same realm found it difficult to kill one another.

This saber-toothed azure tiger was likely close to transforming into a demonic beast comparable to a Divine Bridge cultivator.

Moreover, this saber-toothed azure tiger's bloodline was quite special. With the Six-Eared Macaque's innate Fiery Golden Eyes, Jiang Ming could see a wisp of Xun Wind Essence within its body.

Tigers all inherited some bloodline from the Primordial ferocious beast, the White Tiger. Yet over the endless ages, everything had become exceedingly diluted.

However, tiger-type savage beasts could sometimes awaken a little of their potential during cultivation, whether through mutation or by consuming some heavenly treasure.

Xun Wind Essence counted as a fairly good inherited power.

It was comparable to the Geng Metal Essence of that Golden Centipede.

As the saying went, better to arrive at the right time than early.

This time, he had gathered both clothes and food, hadn't he?

Clang—

A sword cry like a phoenix's call rang out. A streak of crimson radiance flashed and vanished, and Jiang Ming's Life-Bound Sword had already pierced through the saber-toothed azure tiger's head.

It was indeed a fine treasure. Not only had it transformed into a Spirit Artifact, its sharpness and power were enough to rival a mid-grade Spirit Artifact.

Rumble!

The saber-toothed azure tiger was six meters long and four meters tall at the shoulder. Its fur was entirely azure, even gleaming with azure radiance beneath the sunlight. With its wings spread, its wingspan reached ten meters.

The red-feathered crane it had hunted was eight meters long, with a wingspan of twelve meters. Yet it had still been killed by Jiang Ming.

There were two fatal wounds. One was in its chest, as though it had been pierced through by a sharp blade. The other was on its head, which had nearly been cleaved in two.

The Xun Wind Essence had granted the saber-toothed azure tiger an innate ability: the Xun Wind Blade, incomparably sharp and capable of cutting through anything.

Furthermore, under the enhancement of Xun Wind Essence, the saber-toothed azure tiger's speed became even faster. Even the flight-specialized red-feathered crane had found it difficult to escape.

Jiang Ming's Life-Bound Sword directly devoured that wisp of Xun Wind Essence.

Next, Jiang Ming skinned the tiger and plucked some crane feathers.

Using his Life-Bound Sword as a skewer, he began roasting the red-feathered crane.

He also took out the spare Green Wood Sword to grill tiger meat skewers.

At the same time, Jiang Ming directly transformed into a three-headed, six-armed form. While barbecuing, he formed one hand seal after another, using beast blood as ink to inscribe Dao Patterns.

Under Jiang Ming's efforts, the massive tiger hide grew smaller and smaller until it finally became a white robe.

As for the red-feathered crane's plumage, he refined it into threads that formed the Formation Patterns within the robe.

Fortunately, he had learned some artifact-refining and Dharma robe-refining methods in his previous life. As Shushan's foremost genius, he learned everything quickly. On the endless path of immortality, if one did not become an Earth Immortal and ascend, one would ultimately turn into a handful of yellow earth.

The lifespans of cultivators in the Immortal Sword World were, by comparison, even shorter than those in the Shrouding the Heavens world, unless they became immortals and ascended.

Therefore, regarding lifespan, Jiang Ming found this world quite reasonable.

It offered far more longevity than either of his previous two lives.

Great Emperors could live for ten thousand years, and with Undying Divine Medicine, they could live another Lifetime. That was truly blissful.

And so, he had refined a low-grade magical artifact.

The key was that the materials for refining the artifact were good enough. If he were not so amateurish in this regard, a professional could have carefully refined a mid-grade Dharma robe without any problem.

They might even have refined three or five of them.

After all, Jiang Ming had wasted so much tiger hide and so many red-feathered crane feathers.

Even when it came to refining Dharma robes, Jiang Ming admitted that his craftsmanship was a little lacking.

But his barbecuing skills were absolutely first-rate in the mortal world.

Using the body control of the gibbon ape, and with the gibbon ape's spatial talent enhancing him, Jiang Ming compressed the roasted meat from the two enormous savage beasts and exotic birds down to the size of ordinary roast lamb and roast chicken.

He began feasting heartily. For Qi Refining Stage cultivators, they could refine heavenly treasures and would not starve to death even without food.

However, Jiang Ming still hoped to preserve the habit of enjoying food. That way, he could constantly remind himself that he was human, not a monster.

Jiang Ming's memories and experiences from Earth told him that even cultivators had to guard their original hearts. Only by never forgetting one's original intention could one reach the end.

Even if one fell into demonic cultivation, one must not lose one's humanity.

Whether demon or God, one had to be governed by one's own original heart and will. That was the path of cultivation.

For hundreds of miles around, this was the saber-toothed azure tiger's territory. None of the surrounding savage beasts or exotic birds dared approach.

That made it convenient for Jiang Ming to refine his Dharma robe here.

A true Dharma robe!

Until Jiang Tingting and Jiang Tang were taken to the Jiang Family, Jiang Ming needed to show himself as little as possible. Therefore, he refined a white monk's robe to suit his identity as the monk Sanzang.

A saber-toothed azure tiger and a red-feathered crane were eaten by Jiang Ming until only bones remained. Even the marrow within was smashed apart and sucked clean.

"Burp!"

Jiang Ming let out a satisfied burp. That meal had been truly refreshing. After testing it, this physique was incredibly powerful. No wonder it could support the innate treasure technique, Seventy-Two Transformations.

Though Jiang Ming appeared able to use the Seventy-Two Transformations as he pleased, transforming into whatever fierce beast he wished, that was mainly because his physical body and origin were strong enough to sustain the consumption of the innate treasure technique.

If an ordinary cultivator such as Elder Han possessed the same innate treasure technique, Seventy-Two Transformations, he would never be able to transform as freely as Jiang Ming. Even after transforming, the duration he could sustain it would be extremely limited.

In particular, with Old Han's physique, transforming into an ordinary savage beast would be manageable. But if he transformed into a Primordial Species or fierce beast whose physique and origin far surpassed his own, he likely would not last even one or two minutes.

The same secret art or treasure technique produced entirely different results in different hands.

It was time to leave!

Jiang Ming put on the white robe and transformed into the devastatingly handsome monk Sanzang. He was preparing to visit his old friend, Elder Han of Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven.

He remembered that the original plot had mentioned how Ye Fan discovered what seemed to be a secret beneath the stone steps at Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven's front gate.

Perhaps he could go take a look. If there was some decent inheritance, he could learn it.

He could also borrow Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven's cultivation grounds to enter seclusion for a while.

Furthermore, Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven had an elder named Han Yishui. He was a Divine Bridge cultivator, Elder Han's older brother, and would also become Jiang Ming's close friend.

Han Yishui and his ten disciples included Divine Bridge cultivators, Life Spring cultivators, and Sea of Bitterness cultivators. Jiang Ming remembered that Elder Han Yishui and his disciples would sooner or later be killed by Ye Fan. As their elder brother and uncle, while they were still alive, he would advise those nephews to be kind and not learn from their master.

It had to be said that once Ye Fan arrived on the Emperor Burial Star, Spirit Ruins Grotto-Heaven would bring Jiang Ming several buckets of gold.

Having just broken through to the seventh level of the Qi Refining Stage, he would play it safe for now and experience the difference between this body and his body from his previous life at the same realm.

For example, in this life, at the seventh level of the Qi Refining Stage, he had easily refined his Life-Bound Sword into a Spirit Artifact.

In his previous life, he had only accomplished that after reaching the Tenth Qi Refining Stage.

Thinking back to when he had refined his Life-Bound Sword, that Immortal Phoenix Divine Form had been the greatest reason his Life-Bound Sword had advanced so easily.

His original plan had been that, with that piece of spiritual phoenix blood crystal, his Life-Bound Sword might also transform into a Spirit Artifact. But it definitely would not have been as powerful as it was now.

The saber-toothed azure tiger had truly been powerful. Its bones alone were enough to serve as precious artifact-refining materials.

Otherwise, Jiang Ming would not have used his Life-Bound Sword to devour the Five Elements essence and wind-attributed essence contained in those bones.

As the saying went, even a mosquito was meat.

The red-feathered crane's bones could not be spared either.

Compared to its other essences, the crane bones contained somewhat more fire-attributed essence.

Whirrr!

The Life-Bound Sword circled the tiger and crane bones once, leaving behind a pile of dry white powder.